Our bodies and what we eat don’t exist in a social vacuum, Big Food knows this only too well

More than one livestock producer has told me that current food policy “maximizes assholes per acre.” I appreciate this off-color phrase as it emphasizes what ought to be obvious: that livestock intensification maximizes all elements of animal production, even those for which there may be no market. I calculate that there are roughly 50 billion animals in our food system at any given moment: 45 billion chickens/turkeys/ducks, 1.7 billion sheep/goats, 1.3 billion cattle, 1 billion pigs, 0.16 billion camel/water buffalo, and 0.12 billion horses. That is a lot of “undesirable” meat – 50 billion hearts, 100 billion eyeballs, and well over 100 billion feet.